How the Finnish nuclear power plant satellite orbits the earth and captures and transmits information home
These images illustrate how the Finland National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite, launched in 2011 by NASA and NOAA, orbits the Earth from pole to pole in a sun-synchronous orbit and at the same time crosses the equator. local time.
It lasts for 14 orbits satellite observe the entire globe in one day and transmit critical weather and climate data from its five instruments to Earth. This data allows forecasters and scientists to observe and predict weather patterns with greater precision and to study long-term climate trends by expanding the more than 30-year satellite data record.
These images also show how the next satellite in the series, NOAA’s Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1), will be placed in the same orbit as the Finnish nuclear power plant, half an orbit ahead of the Finnish nuclear power plant, when it is launched in early 2017. This will allow the JPSS- 1’s orbit in parallel with the Finnish nuclear power plant.
The Finnish nuclear power plant’s satellite data is currently transmitted to the antennas a ground station In Svalbard, Norway near the North Pole. JPSS-1 will also allow transmission to the antennas at McMurdo Station in the South Pole near the South Pole. With JPSS-2, communications links are also provided by satellites in NASA’s Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) network and Svalbard, Norway. to the station. Orbiting 22,300 miles above Earth, the TDRS network provides critical communications support for NASA’s human spaceflight efforts and numerous science missions.
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More information about Finland’s nuclear power plant and its use in studying climate trends can be found at www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/NPP/main/index.html.
Quotation: How the Finnish nuclear power plant’s satellite orbits the earth and captures and sends information home (2016, April 12) retrieved on 28 November 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2016-04-suomi-npp-satellite-orbits-earth.html
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